Jade Jones became the first Briton to win a taekwondo Olympic gold, taking the number of golds claimed by Team GB's female athletes into double figures as they led a fresh charge up the medal table.

Jones capped a day of success for British women, which also brought a gold and a bronze in the dressage arena and gold in the boxing ring. The 19-year-old from Flint, north Wales, beat China's Yuzhuo Hou 6-4 in the women's 57kg final.

The teenager, whose grandfather Martin Foulkes introduced her to the sport aged eight to keep her off the streets, threw her helmet in the air and did a lap of honour carrying the union flag after the final bell. Earlier, she had pulled off a shock victory over the world No 1 Tseng Li-Cheng of Chinese Taipei to earn a place in the final.

Earlier after the parade of heroes from the track, the velodrome and the rowing lake, it was also time to bring on the dancing horses and the female pugilists to help Team GB over the 50-medal mark on Thursday.

Following a rare fallow day on Wednesday without a medal, it was again Team GB's women who led the way in adding to the best total in more than a century and improving the team's chances of sealing third in the medal table.

Although the proportion of medals won by women is similar to that in Beijing, the overall totals are higher and they have been won across more sports. There have also been more medals won in mixed events – dressage, show jumping and eventing.

After a rare fallow day on Wednesday without a medal, it was again Team GB's women who led the way in adding to the best total in more than a century and improving their chances of sealing third in the medal table.Charlotte Dujardin, the most inexperienced member of Britain's gold-medal-winning dressage team, secured gold in the individual event amid more ecstatic scenes. With three gold medals, one silver and one bronze, Britain's riders topped the Greenwich Park medal table on a huge day for the sport. One of the arguments in favour of spending £42m on holding the equestrian events in a temporary venue in the royal park was that it would increase the focus on the sport and attract new riders. It could not have been given a better platform by the British riders and horses.

Dujardin, who started competing internationally only last year in a sport where years of experience are usually required to win, won her second gold medal of the week on her horse Valegro.

The 27-year-old became only the fourth British female athlete to win double gold at a single Games after Kelly Holmes, Rebecca Adlington and Laura Trott.

Her chosen music for the dressage included Land of Hope and Glory, I Vow to Thee, My Country and the chimes of Big Ben, lending the Greenwich Park arena a Last Night of the Proms feel.

Teammate Laura Bechtolsheimer won bronze on Mistral Hojris and Carl Hester, the third member of the team that won gold earlier this week, came fifth on his horse Uthopia.

Dujardin, who showed off her gold medal to the crowd afterwards through tears and smiles, said: "It is always something I've known the horse could achieve, but I didn't really know how I was going to find the atmosphere and the expectation. Valegro was feeling tired but he got in there and he gave his all."

Dujardin is trained by Hester, who offered her a full-time position working at his yard in 2007 after spotting her potential during lessons.

Shortly after the equestrian events reached a thrilling conclusion, there was a more tumultuous atmosphere in the darkened halls of the ExCeL centre a few miles away. In front of a crowd almost entirely made up of noisy Irish supporters waiting for their favourite, Katie Taylor, to win gold in the women's lightweight boxing, Britain's Nicola Adams won the first women's Olympic boxing title.

The 29-year-old flyweight produced a masterful display to beat the number one seed, Cancan Ren from China. The crowd gave Adams their full-throated backing and she responded by dominating the fight from start to finish to win 16-7.

"I am so happy and overwhelmed with joy. I have wanted this all my life and I have done it," said Adams, one of three women's boxers to make the British squad.

The only disappointment on another day of success for Britain was the failure of world open water swimming champion Keri-Anne Payne to finish in the medals. Payne struggled to keep up with the pace set by Hungarian winner Eva Risztov but after 10 gruelling kilometres missed out on bronze by only four hundredths of a second to Italy's Martina Grimaldi.

She said that her decision to stop at the feeding station on the third lap, after which she got embroiled in a tangle of bodies, had cost her dear. "I'm more of a lover than a fighter and I really struggled in the pack after that feed with all the fighting, and I got hit in the face a few times," said Payne, who said she would not give up swimming but needed time to consider her future in the open water event.

Her disappointment capped a poor Games for British swimming, a rare example of a sport that has underperformed for Team GB, in which they missed out on the minimum target of five medals they had set themselves.ends

After watching Adams and Taylor win their gold medals, IOC president Jacques Rogge said he was "a very happy man". He said the medals won by female athletes would help inspire more girls to play sport. "There was some criticism of whether women should box and of their level and technique. We have been vindicated today, that was a good decision and it is only the beginning," he said."We are fighting the right cause. I think this is a strong message around the world. Young women will pick up sport."